CAFRE Abbey Farm

Abbey Farm, a campus of CAFRE, is a 96.5 hectare (240 acre) farm which is all grassland for grazing and silage. Stock numbers comprise of 52 suckler cows.

There will be machinery displays as well as planting and floristry demonstrations, sheep clipping and a weaving demonstration. If you like old machinery and tractors, check out the vintage display. Children will be able to see bug hotels and plant their own seeds to take home.

The food team at Loughry will be handing out ice cream – so lets hope the sun shines!

In addition to seeing all the animals, there will be a range of people attending over the weekend including the PSNI Rural Crime unit, HSENI, NI Water and Antrim and Newtownabbey Council.

What animals live on this farm?

Bull calves are reared for beef and slaughtered at 14 months. Over 100 bullock and heifer calves are transferred in from Greenmount Hill Farm Centre at Glenwherry each autumn for rearing and finishing. All heifers are slaughtered from 20 months, steers from 22 months old. A batch of 40 beef cross bred calves reared from the dairy herd are also reared through to beef. Cattle are complimented with a flock of 200 LleynX ewes, replacements sourced from the Hill Farm. Ewes are bred to Meatlinc rams with all lambs taken through to slaughter. If grass is available the farm will transfer up to 300 weaned lambs from the Hill Farm for rearing and finishing.

CONTACT INFORMATION

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SUMMARY

Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend is delighted to support the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 which is being co-ordinated by Tourism NI, supported by Food NI.

The Ulster Farmers’ Union led initiative, principally supported by Bank of Ireland UK, has been running since 2012 and has attracted almost 60,000 people throughout that time.

The free event gives families the opportunity to get onto farms and into our infamous green fields and apple orchards to discover for themselves where our local food journey begins.